Pokemon: Wasteland
by Bitter Grace
Summary: Alternate PM Universe
1. What Once Was Home

** WASTELAND **  
~~~ Prologue - What Once Was Home ~~~  
  
He looks around at the wasteland that had once been his home.   
His hands fist at his side and his jaw clenches with rage. They   
had destroyed everything, swept through the small town, killing   
randomly, without reason. Since the League Champion has   
disappeared, everything has gone insane.  
  
Dust swirls up from his feet as he shuffles across the dry   
ground to the site of his boyhood home. Nothing remains of the   
warm, comfortable home, not even the foundations. The back yard   
he'd played in as a young child is gone too; only a yawning hole   
where the earth had split.  
  
How could anyone do this?  
  
Something moves in the still, dust-choked air. Instinctively,   
his hand flicks to the carrier belt that was no longer there.   
*Shit.* Nothing is safe anymore. Not since the Rockets and the   
army had come to power.  
  
He dives to the side, rolling frantically. The lone Pidgeot   
screams a challenge at him, swerving to track him, and extending   
its talons to raze his unprotected head. It hesitates suddenly,   
then pulls up and arrows away, back into the air.  
  
He watches the sky incredulously, waiting for the bird to come   
back, for long minutes. It does not return.  
  
He gets slowly to his feet, brushing his clothes off and   
thinking. His home was gone, his family dead. He'd been here   
when it had happened, home to celebrate a victory when he'd   
still been young and naive. Six years later, and it still was   
hard to come back to remember.  
  
Unintentionally, his eyes go to the hole that had exploded into   
being during his celebration. Tears burn in his eyes as he   
remembers the terrified screams of his best friend, the small   
mouse, as it had gone spinning into the void, the sickening wet   
thud as the small body had hit the bottom. His mother, lurching   
around, her eyes wide in pain and shock as a laughing soldier   
sprayed her with bullets.  
  
In mindless fury, he'd unleashed the pokémon he'd carried at his   
belt, his Charizard, his Wartortle, his Articuno, to exact   
revenge for the deaths. The only one to return had been   
Articuno, who had died shortly after, the icy head cradled in   
his arms.  
  
The army hadn't fared so well either. With its last fiery   
breath, the Charizard had managed to blacken three batallions.   
Wartortle had kept up a steady stream of water that had drowned   
hundreds until a stray grenade caught him in his unprotected   
underbelly. Articuno had created a small glacier around the   
remaining men and machines before it had been shot down by the   
last chopper. It had then crawled back to its master to die.  
  
The survivors of that doomed party had melted away to nurse   
their wounds and grudges. All of them were forever changed,   
himself included.  
  
Once he had lived in this town, and he had been the pride and   
joy of every citizen here. Once, he had been young and   
innocent. Once he had been Ash Ketchum, the up-and-coming   
pokémon trainer.  
  
Now, he is jaded, and untrusting. His innocence had been   
stripped away with the decimation of Pallet Town. Now, he is   
still Ash, but the name has taken on a new meaning for him. Ash   
like this town. Like his life.  
  
He turns away, swearing as he always does, year after year on   
the anniversary of Pallet's destruction, that he will avenge his   
mother. He will avenge Pikachu. He will avenge the small boy   
who had died as surely as if they had slit his throat.  
  
He is Ash, and his heart is colder than Articuno's last breath.  
  
*** ***  



	2. One of the Tarnished

*WASTELAND*  
~~~ Chapter One - One of the Tarnished ~~~  
  
Grey gloom dawned.  
  
Ash stood at the edge of the cliffs of Cerulean City -- or what   
was left of it -- wondering, again, for the uncounted-eth time,   
if he should just end his misery and jump. The jagged rocks   
below would catch him, give him the release he had been seeking   
for six long years.  
  
His foot, of its own violation, slid towards the drop point.  
  
Far behind him, he could hear the distant voices of the Firedogs   
shouting at him. He ignored them. It would be so easy to jump,   
he thought. For a brief moment, he felt at peace. _Jump,_ a   
tiny inner voice whispered seductively. _Do it. Jump._  
  
"Ash?" a voice called from close by, urgent and soft.  
  
No. He couldn't. Not while he had unfinished business.  
  
He stepped away from the ledge, with one wistful last look at   
the ocean pounding the rocks below. He turned to see Rain   
standing there, one hand on a slim hip, staring at him with a   
sharp, piercing green gaze. "Oh Ash," she murmured with pity in   
her voice. "Not again."  
  
He walked past her without saying a word, as had become his   
usual habit. They had been lovers once, true, a relationship   
that had grown out of the friendship they'd shared as children.   
But he had grown to loathe the pity and the worry in her eyes   
every time they'd come together. So he'd ended it, but he still   
saw the emotions he hated in her face.  
  
Oak, too, was watching him, but there was no pity or empathy in   
his sharp-eyed gaze. "Next time, just jump," he called   
tauntingly, folding his arms arrogantly and smirking at his   
leader. "Save the rest of us the trouble, and pass the   
leadership of the Firedogs on to someone else."  
  
Ash paused, turned slowly. "Like you?" he asked quietly. A   
deadly silence fell as the other Firedogs sensed the   
confrontation looming in the air, and encircled the two   
combatants.  
  
Sudden, stark fear flashed across Oak's face, and his arms fell   
to his sides as he realized he'd become trapped in a Duel   
Circle. The last fool to Challenge for right to reign had died   
in screaming agony, torn apart by Ash's champion. He had to get   
out of this, and fast.  
  
"N-n-no, of course not," he stammered, ducking his head in   
submission. "You are the Pack Leader."  
  
Ash smiled, baring his teeth in a way that had nothing to do   
with humor. "Right," he said softly. "The Firedogs are _mine_."  
  
With that, he spun, and continued to walk towards the caves the   
Pack members lived in.  
  
His gathered followeds, still in silence, parted ranks to let   
him pass. Then, as a whole, they turned their backs on Oak,   
leaving him standing, fuming.  
  
"Why must you push him so, Oak?" Rain asked quietly. "You know   
he could tear you apart, or turn the Pack on you." She   
sighed. "Things were usually simpler before you joined us.   
There are times when I wish he'd left you to the tender mercies   
of the armies, or the Silver Snakes."  
  
"_I_ wish he had!" Oak raged, screaming at her in his need to   
let out his frustration. "He's insane! Look at the way he   
walks to the cliffs every day, right up to the edge. Look at   
how many times he's thought about leaping off the cliff into the   
ocean! He can't even decide if he wants to live! How can we   
let someone like that decided if we want to live?! Why doesn't   
someone just walk up behind him and push him off? We don't need   
an indecisive, suicidal leader! We need someone to make all the   
decisions! We need a new leader!"  
  
"You'd best watch what you say so loudly," someone hissed in   
malicious glee. The girl everyone had come to call Flame   
detatched herself from the main body and approached Rain and   
Oak. "Ya just got yerself out of a Duel Circle, and yer mouth   
is gonna talk ya right back in. Ash hears a lot, you know."  
  
Oak snorted contemptuously. "Ash knows this and Ash'll do that.   
Yeah right! You know what? Fuck Ash!"  
  
At that moment Ash spun, and lightning flashed from the grey   
clouds, illuminating his eyes a demonic white. An unholy howl   
split the air as Oak's words died into the stillness. From the   
caves burned two red eyes, and a huge, lithe figure darted out   
of the Leader's Cavern.  
  
Rain groaned and covered her face with both hands as Flame   
giggled in insane joy. "Now you've gone and done it," Rain told   
him.  
  
Red flames sparked from nowhere. Oak screamed as a long tongue   
of fire lashed out and laced him across the face. Ash   
materialized as if by magic in front of Oak as he fell to his   
knees, clutching his face and howling in pain.  
  
Black eyes watched him coolly. "Rain," Ash said emotionlessly.  
  
With pain and something more undefinable in her eyes, Rain   
reached into a pocket. "Go," she said softly, and tossed the   
pokéball. A star-shaped pokémon erupted from the sphere, and   
looked questioningly at its mistress. "Cool his burn, Staryu,"   
she ordered.  
  
Ash watched impassionately as a thin stream of water splashed   
across Oak's face. The pain-filled whimpers died away as the   
cool liquid soothed the blistered skin. "Don't try my patience,   
Oak," he said very quietly. "That was a warning. Leadership is   
mine. Don't push me, or I'll hand you right back to the   
Snakes. Is that understood?"  
  
Oak wiped the tears from his eyes. "Understood," he ground out.  
  
"See that you don't forget the moment my back is turned," his   
leader warned softly. "Else next time the burn will be worse,   
and in a much nastier place."  
  
"Understood," Oak repeated again through clenched teeth as Ash   
turned away once again.  
  
The black-haired Firedog Leader leapt onto an outcropping of   
rock and lifted his face to the wind. "Hear me, Firedogs!" Ash   
suddenly shouted, and all heads instantly swivelled to pay him   
undivided attention. "Two years ago I made a promise to you.   
That promise is going to be fulfilled. Two years ago, I swore   
that those of you with blood oaths sworn out against the armies   
and the Rockets would get the chance to make good. Firedogs,   
tomorrow morning, we go forth, using the weapons we've been   
stockpiling, and the pokemon we've been training, and we _repay   
them all for what they have taken!"  
  
Rain shook her head as she knelt beside Oak and applied a   
cooling gel to his cheek. "This is the end," she muttered as   
she worked.  
  
Flame appeared on the other side of him, her red hair waving   
like a banner in the wind. "No," she cackled, looking up with   
obsessive admiration at Ash on the rock, surrounded by howling,   
rejoicing Firedogs. "This is just the beginning."  
  
From the direction of the Leader's Cavern, the same unholy howl   
mingled with those from the humans, and lit the air on fire.  
  
**** ****  
  
  



	3. First Crack in a Heart of Stone

* WASTELAND *  
~~~Chapter Two - First Cracks in a Heart of Stone ~~~  
  
Pewter City. A dull, dank, grimy hellhole of a city located on a strip of once-fertile, now barren and blasted plateau a mile from a mutated jungle. Bombed streets and bullet-ridden buildings were all that remained of the once-bustling, busy little town.  
  
Ash paced through the empty streets, dust swirling from his feet to claw at his throat with relentless fingers. His dead eyes scanned restlessly for danger, real or imagined. The Firedogs trailed him uncertainly. Once, this place had been their base of operations, but then the Rockslides had come and claimed it.  
  
"The gypsies return," Oak muttered, still nursing the bad burn across his face. He glared at the back of the Firedog leader's head, though with more fear than actual rage. "Fuckin' wasteland. Why are we here?"  
  
Flame detached herself from the shadow of the scarred Rapidash she went nowhere without. "Lookin' fer anothah burn, Oak?" she purred maliciously. Her smile was insanity personified. "One word to Ash, an' yah can have a matchin' one right here." A heavily lacquered fingernail emerged from deep in her cloak to trace a nail down his uninjured cheek.  
  
"Fuck off," Oak snarled, and slapped her hand away from his face. Flame cackled as Ash turned around, then stopped dead, turning white as the leader focussed on her.  
  
"What did we talk about, Lara?" Ash inquired calmly.   
  
Flame ducked her head, her entire body quivering with the humiliation of being called by her old name, a sign of dishonor in this pack. "Sorry," she murmured.  
  
Ash nodded once, his eyes meeting Oak's without emotion. "Come here, Oak," he intoned. Fearing for his life, Oak moved to join his leader at the head of the pack. "What?"   
  
Ash gestured at the deserted buildings. "There's someone up ahead."  
  
"And what do you want me to do about it? Run like a fool and distract them? No fuckin' way. Christ."   
  
Ash slid him a sidelong look. "Watch youself, Gary. We were friends once, but now you're here on sufferance." He looked back up the street. "I no longer have any friends." Moving suddenly, he strode up the street, calling out, "Stone! I know you're out there!"  
  
For a long moment, there was no answer, and the Firedogs bunched together in a protective circle. Then, a light flickered on from the direction in which the Gym once stood. "Ash! Hell you doin' back in town? I thought Stone ran you out!" called a woman's voice.  
  
Ash fingered the small scar in his eyebrow, his whole bearing changing as he recognized the voice. "Shuri!" he called out in return, something that defied definition in his voice. "Shuriken Kasai. It's been ages."  
  
A woman strode into view, with long brown hair and bitter silver eyes. Her mouth was twisted in cruelty, and her expression sadistic. "Hello again, Ash," she said quietly, and something undefinable flashed through her eyes. "Haven't seen you since the Magnificent Seven. I'm called Star now."  
  
Oak nudged Rain. "Who's that?" he asked quietly, looking Star up and down.  
  
Rain's mouth curled in anger. "That's Shuriken Kasai. Star, now, I guess." Rage and loathing filled her voice. "She used to run a gym in the Elemental League to the West of the Johto. The Aqua Sea Island Gym, I believe."  
  
Oak whistled in approval. "I've heard of her. Isn't she the only one to have gone through the Rainbow League, beat the Magnificent Seven?"  
  
Rain nodded in disgust. "That's the first time Ash left me...to tag along with that....cow. That...bitch." A cynical smile. "She has more of an attachment on him than I do. Than I ever did." A self-satisfied smile now. "Her gym, her brother Kingin, and her cousin Eisei were all destroyed when the nukes hit the Island." Her expression said, "And good job too."  
  
"Star," Ash was saying in a dispassionate voice. "Whatever." Whatever it had been that had flashed through Ash, real emotion, memory...it disappeared as rapidly as it had come. "Where's Stone?"  
  
The look faded from Star's eyes, replaced by smouldering anger. "In the deepest, darkest pit I could find to put him in." Her fingers came up to her face to trace the long, deep scar half-hidden by her hairline. "Why?"  
  
Ash shrugged. "Unfinished business," he said.  
  
Star smiled, an unpleasant combination of eyes and teeth. "You were going to pay him back for what he did to me."  
  
"Maybe. Maybe not."  
  
Star laughed quietly. "You're too late, hon." Her laugh turned ugly, and she pointed up at the top of the shell of the Gym. Ash's eyes - and indeed, all the eyes of the Firedogs who were patiently waiting out the conversation -- followed her finger upwards...  
  
...to see Stone's empty-eyed skull decorating a pike on the roof.  
  
Rain gagged and spun away, retching as her stomach tried to upchuck the small, meagre breakfast she'd consumed earlier. "Christ," she cursed, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "She gets worse and worse every time I meet her."  
  
"He didn't deserve to live," Star said quietly. She turned on her heel and touched the scar on her forehead again. "See ya round, Ash."   
  
"Wait!"  
  
Star and Rain both froze at the same time. Star twisted back around, her eyebrow raised. Rain stared agape at Ash, who was standing uncertainly with his arm stretched out. "Star...no...Shuri. Come with us."  
  
Star tilted her head quizzically. "Say again? Why?"  
  
Ash looked back at his waiting pack, and his gaze seemed to linger on Rain. When he turned back to Star, his eyes held the first hint of emotion he'd displayed in six long years. "Because I've missed you," he said simply.  
  
"That bitch!" Rain seethed, her hands clenching into fists by her side. "That filthy, fat, sellskirt bitch!"  
  
"What's your problem, Rain?" Oak asked acidly, idly rubbing the back of his neck.  
  
She raised her eyes to watch Star and Ash, they were filled with hatred. "She's done it again. She did, not me. Why does it always have to be her?"  
  
Flame, always knowing the right moment to interfere and make things worse, cackled from underneath her Rapidash. "Rain's problem is that, after all the things she's tried, it wasn't her that made Ash want to live again."  



End file.
